POULTRY AND GAME

"The cackling of geese saved the city of Rome; May all these recipes keep peace in the home."

By the word game is meant all animals and birds which have never been domesticated and are proper to be eaten — from the little quail, prairie chicken and other birds to the roe, deer and other hoof-footed species. The flesh of wild animals has an aroma more marked than that of the tame ones.

How to Choose Poultry.

The age of the poultry is the principal thing. The best chick- ens are plump on the breast, fat on the neck, with smooth yellow legs, tender skin and the lower part of the breast bone pliable. A young turkey is known by its short spurs, dark and smooth legs. The age of the young duck may be ascertained by tearing the skin between the toes, if the skin tears, the duck is young. Geese may be know by taking the windpipe between two fingers and pressing it, and if young, a low crackling sound will be heard; also, if the thumb will easily press through the skin under the wing, the goose is young.

Full grown fowls have the best flavor, providing they are young. Older poultry makes the best soup. Chickens with yellow skin and feet make the richest stews. All poultry and game should hang at least 24 hours in a cool place after they are killed, before cooking. Flesh of game is tough when first killed, it is more tender if kept sometime, or if frozen.

How to Kill Poultry.

Chickens and turkeys are killed either by chopping off the head or cutting the artery on the neck. After poultry is killed, hang it up by the feet and as soon as the bleeding stops pick off the feath- ers, while yet warm, and then singe. Geese and ducks are killed by taking the fowl under the left arm, holding the bill in the left hand, then stabbing it on top of the head; liold the fowl in this position

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letting the blood run into, a dish. When the blood stops running hold a red hot iron on the place where it is stabbed; this is done to prevent any blood from dropping on the feathers; then pick the feathers and singe the fowl.

Feathers from geese, ducks, prairie hens, pigeons and birds of all kinds are always picked off dry — chickens only should be scalded.

Drawing Poultry.

Cut off the feet at the first joint, then the head and half the neck; cut the skin on the back of the neck down to the back of the wing. Detach the skin from the neck and draw the skin down over the breast, then cut off the rest of the neck close to the body, re- move the crop and windpipe, break the ligaments that hold the internal organs to the breastbone, then cut an opening below the breastbone down to the vent. Put the hand in the opening and carefully work it around until the top of the breastbone is reached, and draw out all the organs at once. Close to the ribs will be found a pinky substance called the lungs, or lights, remove these. Cut out the vent and the oil bag on the tail, then wash the fowl quickly inside and out with cold water. Cut the gizzard open, re- move the thick inside skin and carefully remove the gall bag from the liver.

In shipping fowls frequently the intestines have not been re- moved and if such is the case, in washing the fowl, add a half tea- spoonful of baking soda, which will sweeten and render all the more wholesome.

The giblets are the gizzard, heart, liver and neck.

In roasting or boiling any fowl, ti'uss it, which means, to draw the thighs close to the body across the legs at the tail and tie firmly to the body with twine which is removed before serving, or pass the legs through a slit near the tail and skewer the wings close to the body.

"Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods. Not hew him as a carcass fit for the hounds."

— Shakespeare.

A few simple rules are to be observed in carving birds. Plunge the fork upright into the very center of the breastbone and keep it there until the bird is dissected and served. Remove the legs first between the thigh and body until the bone is reached, then the thigh is forced back and the joint laid open, then remove the

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leg with the point of the knife. Remove the w'ngs taking a part of the breast with it, the breast then can be sliced.

Pigeons, quails and other birds of the same size are split lengthwise into halves.

Giblet Broth.

Pour boiling water over the chicken feet, take them out and remove the skin and nails and place them with the giblets. Cover with cold water, add teaspoonful of salt, 1 small onion and boil until tender. This broth can be used for basting any roasted or fried fowl.

Chicken, Roasted Plain.

Singe, draw and wipe dry a young chicken; season with salt inside and out, then spread butter over the breast and place the chicken in the roasting pan, breast down. Lay thin slices of lard- ing pork over the back. Set the pan in a medium hot oven and roast until the chicken has become a fine brown color all over; baste frequently with the giblet broth, which has been added to the pan.

Chicken Roasted, with Giblet Forcemeat.

Prepare chicken same as for chicken roasted plain. Chop the raw giblets as fine as possible, soak half a loaf of stale bread 10 minutes in cold water, then put it in a napkin and press the water out. Fry 1 finely chopped onion in a tablespoon of butter, with- out browning; then add the bread and stir and cook 5 minutes. Remove from the fire and when c '1 add the chopped giblets, 2 whole eggs, 1 teaspoon salt, ^^ teaspoon pepper, 3^ teaspoon grated nutmeg, 1 teaspoon thyme, and mix well together. Fill the chicken, sew it up, truss it nicely and finish as per recipe above.

Chicken Roasted, with Oyster Forcemeat.

Prepare chicken same as for chicken roasted plain. Chop fine, 10 large oysters; 1 cupful oyster liquor; 13^2 cups of rolled crackers; yolk of 1 egg and 1 whole egg; even teaspoon salt; Yi teaspoon pep- per; tablespoon melted butter; 3^ tablespoon chopped parsley. Mix all together and use as directed above.

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Chicken Roasted with Plain Dressing. Prepare chicken same as for chicken roasted plain. Soak half a loaf stale bread 10 minutes in cold water, place in napkin and press the water out. Fry 2 tablespoons of finely chopped onion with 2 tablespoons butter, without browning; add the bread and cook 5 minutes. When cold, add an even teaspoon of salt, a little pepper, teaspoon of thyme, 2 eggs, and mix all together, and use as directed

Another bread dressing is to remove the crust from a small loaf of bread and crumble it up into small crumbs, season with salt, pepper, sage and butter; mix well together and use as directed above.

Chicken En Casserole.

Take spring chicken, cut up; put in casserole with 1 piece of butter on each piece of chicken; cover casserole and bake in hot oven 1 hour. Scoop five potatoes into balls with vegetable scoop and fry in deep fat. Remove chicken from casserole; add potatoes to gravy, also chopped chives, red and black pepper, salt, chopped parsley, 2 or 3 tablespoons of kitchen bouquet and twice the amount of boiling water. Put the chicken in the gravy, baste with the gravy and put in the oven to reheat. Serve from casserole.

— Mrs. Webb Stevens.

Chicken, En Casserole, with Celery. Heat 3 tablespoons of butter or drippings in a frying pan and fry in it until a light brown, a thinly sliced onion. Disjoint a ten- der chicken weighing 4 or 5 pounds, roll the pieces in flour and fry them in the fat in the pan until a nice brown. Heat a large casserole in the oven and place in it a cup of diced celery. Place the chicken on top of the celery, pour over it 13^ cups water which you have heated to the boiling point in the pan in which you fried the chicken; add 1 teaspoon salt, cover the dish tightly and bake in a moderate oven 2 hours.

— Mrs. Edward M. Heiliger.

Chicken Pot Pie.

Cut chicken as for frying. Yolks of 4 hard boiled eggs; 1 tea- cup minced salt pork; butter; pepper; salt; flour. Good sized kettle which will go in oven. Make biscuit dough as follows: 1 quart flour, 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder; put baking powder in flour and sift twice. Mix in the flour lard twice size of small egg, very lightly, until mixture seems like flour; add salt. Have 1 pint

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milk and water mixed {% milk to ^ water), put into flour and mix thoroughly. Work dough lightly until perfectly smooth, roll as thin as for pie crust, taking 3^< of dough and rolling into a circular piece. Cut in quarters, and after greasing kettle all over, line sides with the dough putting points down and corners at top touching, the lower corners coming to within an inch of bottom of kettle. Cover bottom of kettle with thin layer of minced pork, then a layer of chicken (uncooked), pepper, salt, bits of butter, 2 egg yolks crumbled fine, a thin sprinkle of flour. Take dough which was left and after cutting a piece large enough for top crust, use the re- mainder for dumphngs, rolling as thin as possible. Cut into strips about 3 inches wide, then across in pieces about 2 inches wide. Cover the layer of chicken with some of these. Put on another thin layer of pork and proceed as at first, until all is in kettle. Roll out top crust as for pie and cut slits in top. Put it on the pie and lay top edges of lining dough down over top crust. Pour in through slit in top, boiling water until it covers top crust; cover, set on slow fire, and boil 2 hours. Put in oven 3^ hour before serving, in order to brown the top.

— Miss Winnifred Ohr, St. Paul, Minn.

Chicken Pie.

Take a fat chicken and cut into pieces; stew until tender, add- ing salt. Make a biscuit dough; put chicken into a deep pan with plenty of broth; sprinkle in a handful of flour and add pepper and salt, if necessary. Wet the edge of the pan and cover the top with biscuit dough 1% of an inch thick, cutting a slit in the center for steam to escape. Bake in a moderately hot oven.

Stewed Chicken with Salt Pork.

Cut up chicken as for frying; dice a pound salt pork, place in a kettle, add chicken and brown slightly. Add hot water enough to cover well; boil until tender; skim occasionally. When this is done have ready some baking powder biscuits, split them open and place on a platter, putting the chicken in the center. Thicken the gravy with flour and pour over chicken and biscuits.

Southern Chicken Pie.

Select a yellow Philadelphia fowl weighing 4 or 5 pounds; clean carefully, singe, and put it on in boiling water enough to cover it and let it simmer gently until it begins to grow tender. Save this broth with the giblets. Now cut the chicken in small pieces; slice

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a quarter of a pound of fat pork very thin and fry it with the chicken until it is brown. After the chicken and pork are fried take them up and stir into the pan in which they were cooked a tablespoon of flour. Stir it over the fire until brown; then add a pint of the chicken broth, a teaspoon of salt, 34 teaspoon of pepper. Stir this gravy until it has boiled 2 minutes and use it for pie. To make the crust: Mix together in a bowl with a knife 1 pound of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of butter, and just enough cold water to hold it together. Roll it out about an inch thick; cut a quarter of a pound of butter in large slices, and lay it all over the paste; fold it up and wrap in a floured towel and put in the ice box for half an hour. Roll it out, repeating same with another quarter of a pound of butter; roll it to a thickness of Y2 inch, fold it in 3 thicknesses and roll it out again. If the butter breaks through, fold it again in a towel and cool for half an hour before using. Line a deep dish; then put in alternate layers of chicken, pork, and sliced raw potatoes; pour in as much gravy as the dish will hold. Sprinkle with a little chopped parsley, a dash more of pepper and salt, and cover with a top crust, wetting the edges to make them adhere. Cut a hole in the top to allow the steam to escape.

— May Irwin.

Spring Chicken Fried.

Have a spring chicken cut into 6 pieces; season M^ell with salt and pepper; put a pound fine cut salt pork over the fire and fry to a light brown; add 1 tablespoon of butter. Put in chicken and fry over slow fire to light brown, then add y^ cup giblet broth, cover pan and cook until tender. After removing chicken, thicken gravy with 2 tablespoons of flour and 13^ cups of giblet broth and 1 cup of milk and cook until thick.

Another way is to chop the giblets fine, add them to gravy; lay the chicken on buttered toast, pour gravy over them; sprinkle 1 fine chopped, hard boiled egg over it and garnish with water-cress or parsley.

Spring Chicken Deviled.

Split a clean spring chicken through the back; season it with 1 tablespoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper; crack the bones be- tween the first and second joints and flatten them nicely; put in a roasting pan with 2 thin slices of salt pork over the breast and pour 2 tablespoons of melted butter over it; then place the pan in a

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medium hot oven, cover with buttered paper and roast 20 minutes, basting frequently. Remove the paper, add }/2 cup giblet broth; roast until chicken is done, which will take about 40 minutes. Make gravy as above if desired.

Spring Chicken Broiled.

Spht a spring chicken through the back; crack the bones be- tween the first and second joints and fry nicely; brush over with melted butter; lay on a broiler over a moderate clear fire and broil light brown on both sides; turn the chicken 3 times during that time. When done, lay the chicken on a hot dish, then mix 2 tablespoons of butter with 1 tablespoon of salt, J^ tea- spoon of pepper; spread this on both sides all over the chicken and garnish with water-cress or parsley.

Chicken Fillet — How to Prepare for Entrees.

Remove the skin from the breast of a young plump chicken so that the fillet will lay bare; make an incision on top of the breast bone from end to end, then with a small knife cut off the entire breast from each side, including the small wing bone. Under each breast will be found a small fillet which is called the mignon; care- fully remove it, pare off the thin white skin which covers the fillets and the mignon, then lay them in a buttered pan and cover with buttered paper and set in cool place until wanted.

Chicken Fillet a la Toulouse.

Mix 1 tablespoon of salt with 3^ teaspoon of white pepper; sprinkle it over the fillets and mignons of 3 chickens. Make 6 in- cisions on top of each mignon, then cut 4 truffles into slices; cut each slice into 3 strips, then insert in each incision of the mignon a strip of truffle; lay 1 mignon on top of each fillet lengthwise. Place 4 tablespoons of butter into a pan and as soon as melted re- move it, then put in the fillets and baste them with the melted but- ter. Cover with buttered paper and put them in a medium hot oven and bake about 15 minutes. In the meantime brown 2 table- spoons of fine chopped onion in 1 tablespoon of butter; add 1 heap- ing tablespoon of floor; stir and cook; add 1 pint of chicken broth, 1 even tablespoon of salt, 12 small whole peppers and 1 bay leaf. Cookslowly 10 minutes, then strain into a clean sauce pan; add 2 tablespoons of white wine, 2 fine sliced truffles; cook; then mix the yolks of 2 eggs with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, add it to the sauce, also ]4, tablespoon of butter; stir it well. Pour the sauce on a warm

dish and arrange the fillets on it. ^^ t ^^

^ — C. J. M.

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Chicken Goulasch. Boil the fowl in the usual way; when tender take out, remove the bones and put them back in the liquor; cook 30 minutes and remove bones. Dice the chicken, except the giblets; add to liquor with Y2 can tomatoes, or 6 whole ones, 6 onions, salt, pepper, a little sugar, tablespoon of butter and stew until done. Have ready slices of buttered toast and pour over the toast; serve hot.

Boiled Chicken with Oyster Sauce.

Select a plump, fat year-old-chicken weighing about 5 or 6 pounds; remove carefully all the fat possible; a fat fowl is the most tender, but if the fat is cooked in it, the flesh will have a strong taste. Prepare a dressing by using a pint of stale soft bread crumbs, taken from the inside of a loaf of bread, salt to taste, a pinch of cayenne, a pint of small 03^sters, a large teaspoon of butter and 1 egg. Mix this well and dress the fowl. Rub a thick cloth with butter, then dredge it with flour and sew the fowl up in the cloth and plunge it into boiling water; then set the kettle where it will boil rapidly for 10 minutes; then let it simmer for 2 to 2Yi. hours; then remove from the cloth and serve with oyster sauce. Save the water in which the chicken was boiled for cream sauce.

— Mrs. John Keller, Toronto, Can.

Curried Chicken.

Boil 1 chicken; then remove it from the liquor and remove the skin and pick meat off bones, and cut into inch squares; return to liquor; add 2 cans mushrooms, halved; thicken with enough flour so the gravy will be a little thicker than for ordinary gravy, then add 1 tablespoon of curry powder, salt, paprika, and celery salt.

— Mrs. Fred Moffatt.

Chicken Chop Suey.

Boil 1 chicken and pick it off the bones. In another dish boil 4 good sliced onions, 3 large bunches of celery, enough tomato to give vegetables a nice color, without thinning too much; when ten- der, add the cut up chicken, also 1 can small mushrooms, and sea- son very highly with salt and paprika. Serve hot on a large chop platter with a border of boiled rice, chop suey in the center.

— Mrs. Homer St. John.

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Chicken Croquettes I.

One chicken weighing 3 pounds; 1 pair sweetbreads; 2 onions sHced and fried in butter until brown; 3^ teacup sweet thick cream; 3^2 teacup broth; 3^ salt spoon of mace; little red pepper to taste. Cook and chop chicken fine; add sweetbreads and onions chopped. Mix all ingredients; place in a sauce pan over the fire until it comes to a boil. Take 1 teaspoon of flour, moisten with chicken broth, stir into the boiling mixture. After a few moments remove from the fire and set to cool. When cold, add 1 well beaten egg; then take out on bread board in a large oval spoon a croquette portion, roll in cracker dust, drop into boiling lard, take out, and drain on a piece of linen. Place on hot platter and garnish with parsley.

— May Irwin.

Chicken Croquettes II.

One large chicken; 2 sets calves brains, boiled; 1 small cup suet, chopped fine; 2 sprigs parsley, chopped; 1 nutmeg, grated; 1 tablespoon onion after it is chopped very fine; 1 lemon; the juice and grated rind; 1 teaspoon salt; paprika and red pepper to taste. Cut up and cook the chicken thoroughly; when done, take out of the kettle, skin and put through a meat grinder while hot. Put the stock away to cool. Add brains and other ingredients; skim the greese off the jellied stock and add; also add a little cream until the mixture is very soft. Set away for a while, then mould into croquettes, dip into beaten egg and roll in bread or cracker crumbs and fry in hot lard in a wire basket. This will make about 25 croquettes. Some people prefer rice in- stead of the brains. When rice is used, take 13^ cups boiled rice and mix with the chicken while still very hot.

The secret of good croquettes is to have them very soft and fluffy on the inside, made so by stock and cream. Mix them as moist as it is possible to handle them and let stand awhile after they are dipped in egg and rolled in cracker crumbs.

■ — Mrs. Chandler Starr.

Creamed Chicken.

Melt 3^ cup of butter; stir into it half a cup of flour, half a tea- spoon of paprika and a teaspoon of salt, add 1 quart rich milk and stir constantly until the sauce is smooth and boihng. Then add 5 cups of cooked chicken, diced. This will serve 8 or 10.

104 THE MENDELSSOHN CLUB COOK BOOK.

Chicken Patties.

Follow the above recipe and fill patty shells with the mixture.

Chicken Shortcake.

Make individual rich biscuit dough shortcakes as per straw- berry shortcake, using the creamed chicken in place of strawberries.

• — Mrs. Fred Shoudy.

Chicken Bechamel.

Follow recipe for creamed chicken, using 3^ or ^ broth in- stead of all milk.

Chicken Newberg. Have a cup and a half cooked chicken, diced, in a double boiler; then pour over it half a cup of sherry wine. Add a scant half teaspoon of salt and a dash of paprika; stir until very hot, then stir in the beaten yolks of 3 eggs boiled with a cup of cream. Be sure the water in the lower pan is boiling. Serve as soon as it thickens, because if cooked too long, it will curdle.

Jellied Chicken.

Cut up chicken as for stewing; put it in a dish and place in a

steamer and steam until tender. Skim fat off chicken, season with

salt and take from fire; remove bones and skin and shred into

pieces. Season liquor to taste with paprika and salt and juice of

1 lemon; then pour this over the chicken in a mold and set in a

cool place until it hardens.

— Mrs. Chester McFarland.

Escalloped Chicken.

Butter a mold, put a layer of fine bread crumbs, then a layer of chicken alternately together with a little cream sauce until the dish is filled. Cover with the cream sauce and bake 20 minutes. Use chicken gravy, if possible, instead of cream sauce.

Chicken and Rice Loaf.

One cup cooked, diced chicken; 1 cup of boiled rice; 1 egg; tablespoon chopped onion; little chopped parsley; salt and half cup milk. Stir well, put in buttered mold and bake 15 or 20 minutes. Serve with mushroom sauce.

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Chicken Souffle.

One pint of chicken, finely chopped; 1 pint of cream; 4 eggs; 1 teaspoon of chopped parsley; 1 teaspoon onion juice; salt and pepper. Cook 2 minutes; add the yolks of the eggs, well beaten, and put away to cool; when cold, add the whites beaten to a stiff froth. Turn into a buttered dish and bake half an hour. Serve with a mushroom or cream sauce.

To each pint of chopped cold poultry add 1 teaspoon salt, dash of Cayenne pepper, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley or celery (more, if celery). Have 1 tablespoon butter, 1 gill stock, 2 table- spoons stale bread crumbs. Stir until boiling; add meat, take from fire; then add 2 well beaten eggs. Put in small greased mold and let stand in hot water, then bake 15 minutes. Serve hot with cream sauce. Sauce: 1 tablespoon butter, 1 of flour, 3^ pint milk, Yi, teaspoon salt and suspicion of onion. Cook till thick.

— Miss Winnifred Ohr, St. Paul, Minn.

Turkey Roasted, Plain.

Pluck the bird carefully and singe; break the leg bone close to the body; hang up the bird and draw out the tendons from the legs (all good butchers will do this if asked). Make a small sHt down the back of the neck and take out crop, then cut the neck bone close. After the bird is stuffed the skin can be turned over the back and the crop will look full and round. Cut around the vent, making the opening as small as possible, and draw carefully. Boil the giblets for the gravy. Wash the turkey, dry, salt thor- oughly inside and out and fill with dressing. Sew up the opening at the vent, tie the legs and wings, rub the turkey well on the out- side with butter and place in the oven until it is nicely browned; then remove and cover the back and sides with a paste made from flour and water; return to covered pan, breast side down; add about a cup of hot water; cover and bake slowly until tender.

Chestnut Dressing.

Peel a good sized challot, put in a sauce pan with 1 tablespoon

of butter and heat without browning. Add 34 pound of sausage

meat, cook little longer, then add 10 finely chopped mushrooms,

12 well pounded, cooked, peeled chestnuts and mix well together;

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then season with salt, pepper and a little thyme and parsley. Let this come to a boil, then add 3^ ounce fresh bread crumbs, 24 whole cooked and shelled French chestnuts and mix well together, be- ing careful not to break the chestnuts. Let cool and stuff the turkey.

Sage Dressing.

Soak a loaf of stale bread, without the crust, 10 minutes in cold water; then press out all the water through a cloth. Cook, without browning, 8 tablespoons chopped onion, in 1 tablespoon of butter; add this to the bread, then add 8 tablespoons of sausage meat, half tablespoon salt, half teaspoon pepper, teaspoon of sage and 2 whole eggs. Mix all well together and use as directed in former recipe.

Creole Dressing for Turkey.

Save the blood from the turkey. Cook giblets in as little water as possible until tender and then chop fine. Cook 3 cups rice in 6 cups salted water. Cut fine, small bunch tender green onion tops and parsley. Chop fine 2 large onions and fry (not brown) in 5 or more tablespoons melted fat. To this add the cooked rice, giblets and water in which they were boiled, onion tops and parsley, then the blood. Stir until the blood is thoroughly mixed. Season highly with red and black pepper, salt and a pinch of sage; cook until blood has changed color, stirring mixture all the time. Stuff turkey with this as you would bread dressing. 3 or 4 dozen oysters added the last thing before stuffing turkey is very nice.

— Mrs. Montou, Jennings, La.

Roast Turkey with Sausage.

Stuff the turkey with rich dressing. When done, turn out on a platter, surround it with small fried sausages and chestnuts cooked in broth, and serve with a well thickened giblet sauce.

Braised Turkey.

Truss and stuff as for roasting, using a forcemeat made of mushrooms and sweetbreads in addition to the bread. Lard the breast with salt pork, place the turkey in a stew pan, breast upper- most, with sliced vegetables, and water to cover. Set it on the top of the stove and as soon as it begins to boil put it in the oven and bake slowly until done.

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Boiled Turkey with Oyster Sauce.

Prepare in the same manner as for roasting; fill with the oyster dressing (for oyster dressing recipe see "Boiled Chicken with Oyster Dressing"), tie legs and wings close to the body, place in boiling water that has been well salted, breast down. Skim often, let it boil until done, being careful to avoid skin being broken. Serve with celery or oyster sauce.

Boned Turkey.

Very difficult, but very nice. Clean the fowl as usual; have a very sharp pointed knife; begin at the end of the wing, pass the knife down close to the bone, cut all the flesh from the bone, leaving the skin whole. Pass the knife down each side of the breast bone, and up the legs keeping close to the bone. Split the back half way up and carefully draw out the bones. Fill these places with the stuff- ing, restoring the fowl to its natural form; then sew up all the incis- ions made in the skin. Lay a few strips of salt pork on the top, and roast, basting often with salt and water and a little butter. Add a glass of port wine to the gravy. When serving, carve across the fowl in slices.